For nearly 40 years, artist Preston Russell has created paintings inspired by the people, architecture, and history of Savannah and the Low Country. Often populated with ghost-like figures from the past, Russell’s canvases possess an enigmatic quality and a surprising element of tension, further heightened by the artist’s unique compositional choices. Russell, who is primarily self-taught, has lived and worked in Savannah since the early 1970s and was a founding member of Gallery 209 on River Street. // The exhibit is open all day through Jan. 9, 2013, at Telfair Academy.